The Quest for the World-Breaker
'' Another Butterfly's Tale: The Quest for the World-Breaker is the second book in the Butterfly Princess series of novels. It was first published online as an e-book in January, 2013; the print edition was made available in 2019. Synopsis The story begins in March of unctual year 3889. Mariposa is dividing her time between staying with Four in Torlynn Castle and leading the remains of her decimated people in the Darklands. When the moth warriors begin attacking townships on Torlynn soil, however, Four—as the new king—wages war on the moths and takes a team of knights find them. Four is captured by a moth warrior named Syxx, and the two are separated from the battle when they are washed up into an underground cave. They must cooperate together to survive and return home. Four learns that the moths are searching for pieces of an ancient weapon called the World-Breaker, and vows to help Syxx find it and destroy it. Meanwhile, Mariposa learns from one of her colony's elders that her people may not be facing extinction. The elder tells her that there are other butterfly colonies scattered around the world, and that the Flightless One may know where they are. She is accompanied in her search by Brian Devonhyre, who is secretly under orders from Lady Deorwynn to keep Mariposa and Four apart so that Deorwynn can attempt to seize control of Torlynn Castle. Together, Mariposa and Brian attempt to unravel the riddle of the Flightless One legends. After they regroup with Four and Syxx, who had been traveling with Talla Unica and had been attempting to cross the Great Divide, Brian cuts the rope bridge spanning the Great Divide, trapping Four on the other side. Four ends up falling into the chasm and discovers a lost race of bee people. While trying to climb out of the ravine, he is rescued by Mirabel Miller and her crew of goblins aboard the airship ''Xanthippe. Mariposa discovers that Talla Unica is not a human child at all, but a young butterfly who had lost her wings. At Brian's suggestion, the company seeks the guidance of a sorcerer named Tha'aron as to the best way to find and destroy the World-Breaker. They find him in the abandoned Ivory Palisades inside a magical cabin, living with his cat, Hissy-Fitt, and his servant, a mechanical man named Syzygy. An avalanche traps the group in a mound of snow, but Forever the dragon comes to their rescue. He agrees to continue helping them in return for a statue from the Golden Desert, intending to use one of its jeweled eyes to replace the one he lost in his encounter with Captain Peg-Face. Meanwhile, Four, who is taken with Mirabel and her strong likeness to her deceased sister Christabel, agrees to help her find the pieces of the World-Breaker. He later learns that Mirabel's true intention is not to destroy it, but to assemble it and use it in order to destroy the Moon, which Christabel had calculated, according to her journal, was on a collision course with the Earth. Four also discovers that the newborn dragon Mirabel keeps aboard the ship, named Baby, is in fact a transformed Christabel, who had consumed a vial of dragon's blood before her "death." The goblins, whose ancestors had been forced to build Torlynn Castle, mutiny and storm the castle, biting off Deorwynn's nose and destroying Syzygy, kicking his head into the forest. Brian engages the moths in battle but is badly hurt. Moth warriors who stowed aboard Xanthippe kill the remaining crew, and the airship crashes into Torlynn Castle, destroying it. After the World-Breaker is assembled, Tha'aron hits it with a magical lightning bolt, hoping to destroy it, but he instead activates it. Lacking adequate fuel to propel itself into the atmosphere before it explodes, Mariposa and Syxx both carry it into the sky. Syxx pushes Mariposa aside and continues her ascent into the upper atmosphere until the device detonates, killing Syxx but saving the planet. Forever agrees to take Baby under his wing and departs. Mirabel has disappeared, along with Syzygy's head. Tha'aron returns home with Hissy-Fitt. Mariposa and Talla Unica are invited to live at the new butterfly colony, but Four feels unwelcome there. In the end, he and Mariposa part company once again. In the aftermath of the World-Breaker incident, the Dwarves uncover an unexpected and momentous discovery while excavating with their drilling machine. They prepare to dig it up... Jacket Copy (e-Book Edition) Four has somehow managed to stumble into paradise. He's the ruler of a country (even though he doesn't know anything about leading a nation), gets to live in his very own castle (though it is terribly drafty), and has Mariposa, his beloved Butterfly Queen, at his side (though she doesn't prance around naked quite as often as she used to). Everything falls apart when Four wages war against the wrong people, is separated from Mariposa, and discovers a plot to unearth a dark weapon with a secret past. Now it's up to him and his companions—Syxx, the sexy moth warrior, the homeless Talla Unica, and Tha'aron the senile old wizard—to find the pieces of a weapon that is so dangerous that we named the whole damn book after it. Jacket Copy (Print Edition) Return to the neo-medieval world of The Butterfly Princess series in the sequel to A Butterfly's Tale that will make you ask this vital question: Why didn't the author just stop with one book?! Four, the accidental king of Torlynn, has got a problem. No, it's not that he has no idea how to rule a kingdom. No, it's not that his new castle is cold and drafty. The problem is Mariposa, his beloved Butterfly Princess of the forested Darklands, and trying to keep her happy. No small feat when she's being forced to eat human food and actually has to wear clothing for a change. Naturally, Four does what Four does best and starts making some really bad decisions. He wages war on the wrong people, for starters. He gets separated from Mariposa, too. Oh, and he also stumbles upon a plot to unearth and reassemble an ancient technological relic that could wipe out all the Greater Races. No big deal. Now it's up to Four and his new companions—Syxx, the cute and fiesty moth warrior, the homeless child Talla Unica, and Tha'aron, the batty old wizard—to find the deadly World-Breaker. It's a race against time in which Four comes face-to-face with goblins, dragons, and a mysterious pirate captain whose airship carries secrets about Four's tragic past... Print Version The print edition of the novel is an updated version of the e-book which includes some spelling and grammatical corrections, as well as some polish to the prose. It is not significantly different in content from the original e-book. Trivia An early name considered for the novel was "The Quest for the World-Ender." Just as Brian Devonhyre was a character from a tabletop role-playing game who was appropriated for the story, Tha'aron and Hissy-Fitt are two more characters from that role-playing campaign who were incorporated into the story. (Tha'aron was originally equipped with a talking dagger, but the role of a subservient tool was given to Syzygy for the book.) The original cover for the book was created using wordle.net, feeding the text of the story into the web site which produced a tree-shaped image made from the most common words used in the book. This was a time-saving measure since the illustration originally intended for the front cover was not ready in time for publication. Category:Books